Plans

The following week will be my last one volunteering with Lady Volta. It is amazing how fast the time has gone. I remember thinking with trepidation, in Montreal, that 5 weeks was such a long time. Now it seems like it is going to be the blink of an eye.

I am definitely just not built in the same way as the youngsters today. Clara said to me when i told her about my plans, 'Mom, you are going all that way why don't you stay for a long time?!' ...so i changed from 4 weeks to 5 and found myself very daring!! Clara is gone for two months. Cathy is here for 3 months, Clarice for 4 and Shoko will be here for 2 years!!! ... i guess i am not that daring at all!!

I have learnt so much though in the two short weeks i have been here. Rome was not built in a day... rather day by day, I keep telling myself. I came here with no expectations but with an idea to bring home beads and volunteer.

The volunteering has surpassed any ideas i could have had. And i will be bring a part of this home with me. I really would like to see if i can have a go at fundraising for Lady Volta in the form of getting their product out in Canada. I like the idea of women in the world uniting to help each other.

Also i have learnt a lot about the Bead Business. I have found out how to locate the beads, to negotiate and buy them and a lot about the beads themselves and their sellers. While here in Ho, i have gone each weekend to the two markets that have beads that are accessible. I have bought quite a few beads, not enough to fill a store by any means.. just enough to seed my idea ... the idea of becoming the Bead Lay and selling beads on the internet first. If the business does take off my next trip will be much easier to plan. In order to really shop for beads I now know things like: one really needs to hire a car and a driver and have a plan in place to ship the beads home. The beads i have bought will fit into a small suitcase but they weigh about 50 lbs!! ... i had not even realized the difficulty just carting the beads around would imply! Also, their weight makes bringing home any significant amount in one's luggage impossible!

I have decided that my next leg of my journey will be more of a fact finder than collecting a lot more beads... I will be going to Kumasi next weekend to the market there. I will only buy beads that are very special but the trip will give me more experience. Also it is in this area that the brass beads are made in Ghana. I would like to see these being made.

Dela and i will travel to Kumasi by tro tro and explore the area for a couple of days with these aims in mind.

Then i will come back to Ho to pick up my luggage and say good by to everyone.

Christianne will bring me and my luggage to Accra. The girls might come with us and we will explore Accra together over the weekend.

Then i will go and check out all the bead markets there in the days before i catch my flight on Thursday, Feb. 23rd.

By the end of my trip, the goal i have set for myself is to feel quite comfortable in the Bead Market world so that if the Bead Lady venture does start to pan out Ghana will be a real and known resource for me.

---- some of my bead stash!!!

The Bead Market

Photos just don't do justice to the markets somehow... I think it is because it is not just one thing that makes up the scene... somehow to take it in you need to use all your senses... and a photo is so one dimensional... the heat, the almost thick air that pillows you, the flashes of colour, the sound...

Cathy is next to me writing her blog, too. She mentions how hard it is to describe it here.. She is trying to describe Ho. Would you understand if i say it is like hundreds of these roadside African villages all mushed together with an occasional city-like building looming up once in awhile? It probably doesn't say anything to you... but the market is like a village on amphetamines!!!

Market Day!

Starting to feel like an old hand at 'going to the market'... but i was still delighted at the thought of the excursion.. Clarice was going with me. It would be her first real sortie out into the Ghanaian world...

Clarice, the newest recruit is a business student from Paris who is doing a 4 month stage here.

So we set off a bit later as it was Saturday to meet Dela at the tro tro station at 9 am. It was bustling as usual but i knew the ropes now ... and looked for the small wooden signboard saying 'Kpong' (which is where we would switch tro tros for Agomanya)

We sat in the 'tin can' like a bunch of cooking sardines ... ha! ha! But once we were on the move the breeze streamed in and cooled our steaming bodies!!

The sights were starting to be familiar.. i recognized the stand of trees that i find so funny.. their trunks widen at the base and then their branches are all quite short + bunched at the top.. so all in all; they look like awkward, pot-bellied men waving their short arms!! ..All the road side stands with their produce: bright red tomatoes, avocados, pineapples and the ever present casava root..

We changed tro tros at Kpong after a quick diversion (...Dela hunted out a hotel for us to use a 'reasonable' washroom!! ...as he said there were lots of options but not all of them would suit us .. we didn't argue!)

Then we caught the other type of tro tro that picks up people along the way... the next part of the road is where a lot of it has been washed out so in the van we were not only baked but shaked!!! ha! ha!

Finally we arrived.. this time we had the luxury of just jumping out of the vehicle and not having to worry about parking..

We set off through the market .. us following Dela who knew exactly where to go... i was straggling behind a bit as i tried to snap some photos..

The first several times through a market it was like my eyes were shy and couldn't light down on anything really... now they had adjusted and i could really take in all the vignettes.. one that was lovely was a very young boy and his mother selling red tomatoes piled high... both of them were wearing these oversized straw hats... on his mother it was large but on the young, slight boy it was gigantic!! He looked so wonderful... i asked him if i could take his picture and he shook his head emphatically 'no!' which i respected...

At the beads, Dela and Clarice left me to wander once they saw the intent look on my face... i was getting the glass Ghanaian beads this time... and these would be hard to choose. These were the beads that in one way were all the same but they were painted all differently!!

When they came back i was still at it. ... choosing and negotiating... finally starting to feel comfortable in my new role as the Bead Lady!

We strolled through the fabric section but i had been totally spoiled by the hand done batik fabrics at Lady Volta... the machine made batiks just didn't appeal to me anymore...

We took another tro tro, this time all the way to the river so we could have a drink and break on its shores... again the spot struck me as so serene and quite cool.. with the water there and everything so green. Clarice is a real water nut and looked longingly at the people swimming..

She went over to talk to them. They were white people who have lived here in Ghana for 9 years... they take medecine in order to be able to swim.. I had imagined it would be somethng like this....

It was getting on so we decided to head back... to realize we were in a bit of a pickle.. we were in a spot where all the tro tros going by were all full.. we queried about the taxi but felt it was too expensive... (compared to the less than three dollars of the tro tro!!... but with hindsight a total deal... but you just get into that mode of when in Rome...) (anyways it was all part of the adventure!!)

We had to go back ... to Kpong which was about 25 minutes backtracking and once there... wait for a tro tro to fill up!! We were hot and tired .... and the waiting seemed very long... i came close to hustling for people to fill up our tro tro!!! ...i was starting to understand more and more ...

Finally, we were on our way... This time an enormous woman stopped our tro tro and a lot of people had to get out so she could get out .... to pee... she hiked up her batiked fabric gown and crouched!! Then it felt like we were surrounded by all these men 'dropping water' (they actually have a hand gesture ... slapping the top of your left hand into your palm and beseeching 'i beg of you i need to drop water' for when they want to stop the tro tro!!!) .. everyone was totally nonchalant about it but for us Westerners it was quite disconcerting!!

And then we were off again...

Clarice had certainly gotten a full adventure for her first day out! She was totally game even though i could see she was hot and exhausted... she was still smiling when we arrived in Ho ... somehow Africa does that for you.


---- Cathy and Christianne are with me on the porch working on their computers. Clarice is next to me reading her kindle... Shoko is inside -----